Snowbunny Surfing/Costa Rica Top 10

Things you should NOT attempt to do...

10. Check your blackberry. It really (really) doesn't work. It DOES however, make for a GREAT morning high tide alarm clock.

9. Haggle with the local merchants. Really, it's a 3 dollar bracelet. Is there really a moral victory to be made it you get the vendor to come down .50 cents? This isn't Eastern Market, it's a developing country and chances are they need the money more than you do.

8.Order the “Nachos as big as you’re ass”. It is way too many nachos and they aren’t that good. Order the Betty Breakfast instead. (Granola, yogurt, papaya, pineapple and bananas.) The fruit smoothies are pretty darn good too.

7. Dry your hair. My hair was wet from 6:00am to 8:45pm one day. Just put it in a braid and call it good. No sense in bringing a blow dryer to the rain forest.

6. Attempt to cover every part of your body with sunscreen. You will always miss a spot and it will remind you what you WOULD look like if you didn’t use sunscreen at all. Ok, well maybe try – but don’t be too disappointed if you have some random red burnt spot on your shin.

5. Bother with a short-sleeved rash guard. It only takes one time out with the super cute pink ROXY rash guard to f-up your fore-arms and promptly go back to the black one. (Even though you look like surfing Darth Vader.)

4. Try to get your board shorts dry. Enough said. (They are going to be wet in 5 minutes anyway. Savor the knowledge that you are hitting both high tides in one day in Costa Rica.)

3. Surf in a storm. Rain is fine and even kind of hard core, but wind and clouds make for shitty waves and that is not so fun. Throw in a short-sleeved rash guard and some salt water up your nose and you have a REAL good time. Just say no.

2. Not stand up. Just stand up. Even if you fall off the board. Kneeling only causes you pain when you hit the sand and rip the s*#t out of your knees… and you look goofy.

And the thing you should really NOT attempt to do…

1. Freak our when you realize you are out too far and can’t touch the bottom… and are in a rip tide and a rip curl all at the same time… heading for the rocks. Just point your board into shore and let it take you in. That’s what it’s there for after all. And after all that is the point.